Characterisation of vulcanised natural rubber behaviour by monotonic and in situ cyclic X-ray scattering tests

The effect of curing and loading conditions on the mechanical response of natural rubber are investigated by monotonic and in situ X-ray cyclic tensile tests. Tests are conducted on four samples, which differ by vulcanisation conditions. Samples are subject to two strain rates (2.7 × 10 − 3 s − 1 and 16.66 × 10 − 3 s − 1 ), and numerous imposed elongation levels range from 450 to 900%. The coupling between the strain rates and the elongation levels on the stress softening evolution resulting from strain induced crystallisation is investigated. In situ thermomechanical tensile cyclic test is performed in order to withdraw the effect of the strain induced crystallisation on the maximum stress decrease. The experimental results analysis shows that an optimum vulcanisation condition (150°C, 30 min) enhances the hardening process in the monotonic loading due to the strain induced crystallisation. However, under optimum curing conditions, cyclic loading induces a large hysteresis loss, a high stress softening and a high degree of strain induced crystallinity. The material softening sensitivity is controlled by coupled effect of strain ranges and elongation levels. This panoply of experimental measurements present a key information for material parameters identification that are useful to predict the lifetime of engineering components made of natural rubber such as racks, laminated rubber bearings and tires.